IBIA welcomes NEC NSS’ Kathleen Kiernan as newest board member
The International Biometrics + Identity Association (IBIA) membership recently held its annual elections for the association’s board of directors. In this 2023 cycle, four candidates were unanimously elected—three incumbents and one new candidate.
The three incumbents re-elected were: Donnie Scott, CEO of Idemia’s Identity and Security, North America business; Mohammed Murad, VP of Global Sales & Business Development for Iris ID; and Chip Merrill, VP of Public Sector Biometrics at HID Global.
Dr. Kathleen L. Kiernan has been elected as IBIA’s newest board member. She is the president of NEC National Security Systems (NSS), a NEC Corporation of America subsidiary. NSS provides biometric identity, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and computer vision applications to federal government agencies in the defense, intelligence, law enforcement, and homeland security sectors.
Dr. Kiernan has 29 years of experience in federal law enforcement and is an expert in strategy development and implementation. She has also facilitated critical incident management exercises for both government and private sectors. Previously, she served as the assistant director for the Office of Strategic Intelligence and Information at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF).
“Dr. Kiernan is a welcome addition to our board of directors,” says John Mears, chairman of the IBIA board and VP and tech fellow at Leidos Corporation. “Her expertise and experience will add another level of depth to the association’s well of industry thought leaders,” Mears added.
The IBIA board has several other members, including Bob Eckel, president and CEO of Aware, Inc.; Deep Bhatia of Qualcomm; Michael DePasquale, the chairman and CEO of BIO-key International; and Neville Pattinson, head of Business Development and Strategic Marketing of global identity technology for the Thales Group.
“We are pleased to have the world’s global leaders in the biometrics and identity management segment as members,” says Mears. “They are key to our mission of advocacy for efficient, secure and ethical applications of the technology.”
The IBIA has been relatively quiet over the past year, with a response to senators’ calls for the TSA to abandon facial recognition as its only major public engagement.
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